Fossett can't log x-country??

[FL000]

From Neal Boortz at boortz.com

THE WONDERS OF GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS -- AND NAUTICAL MILES AND KILOMETERS
Just a few curious and interesting notes about Steve Fossett's around the world flight last week.

Fossett flew almost 20,000 nautical miles. He did so as a private pilot in a private civilian aircraft operating under rules and regulations promulgated by the Federal Aviation Administration. Now I can make a flight of 500 nautical miles from my home in Atlanta to my home in Naples, Florida and log that flight in my records as a cross country flight. Could Steve Fossett log his flight as cross country? Nope, sorry. He cannot. He crossed the United States, Europe, Asia and a few oceans, but he can't log his flight as a cross country flight. Why? Because he only made one landing, and that landing was at the airport where he took off. To make it a cross country flight you have to land at an airport at least 50 nautical miles away from the airport you departed. Sorry, Steve. No cross country for you. Another note on this cross country stuff. A flight from my home base of DeKalb Peachtree Airport in Atlanta to the airport in Athens, Georgia (home of the University of Georgia) is 49.9 nautical miles. Student pilots, who need to log cross country miles for their license, can't use this flight between two great airports as a cross country flight. Government regulators. Gotta love 'em.

By the way, just what is a nautical mile? Glad you asked. A line drawn around the Earth at the equator would be a circle. Divide that circle into 360 degrees. Then divide every one of those degrees into 60 minutes. One of those minutes -- one sixtieth of one degree at the equator -- would be one nautical mile. Now you know. If it takes you one hour to walk that distance you will be traveling at a sped of one knot.

Wow! Would I make a good teacher, or what?

Now, of course, the more curious among you want to know just how the metric wizards came up with a measurement for a kilometer. Here goes: Draw a line from the North Pole to the equator following the curvature of the Earth. Measure that line. Got it? Good. Now divide that figure by 10,000. That's your kilometer.

To finish out Neal's science lesson for the day ... a nautical mile is equal to 1.852 kilometers and 1.1508 miles.

Got that all straight now? OK, moving on to something more important.

 

[OrphicSeth]

Yeah, I was thinking about this too the other day actually. It appears that for logging X-C towards a rating or certificate (except ATP, I'm sure he flew over another airport more than 50miles away), his flight would not make the grade...BUT I have a difficulty thinking that anyone would give him a hard time about it, AND I don't think he really cares.

 

[spngbobsqrpilot]

He's partially correct.

That time won't count toward the cross-country requirement toward (private) or commercial / instrument requirements. However, for the purpose of ATP cross-country requirements, it would.

Otherwise the FAA would not allow "cross-country" time to be logged (and counted toward ATP) by military pilots who routinely fly patrols, re-fueling missions, SAR ops, Hurricane Hunter, etc. out and back without landing at an auxillary field.

 

[flyifrvfr]

For the purpose of a rating or certificate a cross country must be 50 NM. However, a cross country can be logged if you fly out of the airport traffic area and land at another airport. That airport doesn't have to be 50 NM, it can be much less.

 

[Immelman]

If *I* were Steve I'd log it as X-C and see if any DE had the balls to call me on it

 

[mnixon]

So good teacher sir....How did they come up with a statute mile?

 

[Fuzzy_is_Hungry]

I heard something one time about a "letter of interpretation" from the Feds to B-52 drivers who were flying to some hell hole to drop their "cargo" then flying back to the states non-stop. These guys were able to log it as x-ctry.

 

[414Flyer]

I really really doubt he gives a rats a$$ whether he can log it as X-C or not.

 

[LearLove]

I really really doubt he gives a rats a$$ whether he can log it as X-C or not.

Same here, and who gives a flying F'ck anyway? Just rich guy playing around with his toys. Anyone else with $$ could do the exact same thing.

 

[onthebeach]

Re: Statute Mile

The statute mile, as the name implies, is the legal mile.

In the U.S. and many other countries, it is equal to 5,280 feet.

It was derived from the Latin "mille," or 1000, being equal to roughly 1000 paces (i.e., distance from one right foot plant to the next right foot plant) of a marching Roman soldier. I say "roughly" because the original Roman mile (if memory serves, and it doesn't always) was closer to 5000 feet. How it lengthened to 5,280 feet will be up to someone who is even more versed in useless trivia than I.

As an interesting aviation history note, the section lines of the U.S. are laid out in one-statute-mile squares. You can see them easily when flying VFR in the midwest. For an illustration, check out road maps of Kansas, etc. The sections are also oriented to true north by a method of survey called cadastral ("from the stars") surveying. The old time aviators flew in the Midwest using section lines for direction reference and getting there ground speed by how many section lines they passed in a given time. Who needs compasses and GPS?